Sep 4, 2009

Many of us are constrained when it comes to shopping online since most of online shopping sites require you to have a credit card. Also, people (particularly in India) are paranoid of online identity theft. Enter the HDFC bank, which has this god send (read the side note later) service of Netsafe which allows you to shop online at any site using any of its debit card. It does so by allowing you to create a disposable virtual credit card using your debit card. For this, HDFC Bank has special tie ups with VISA and MASTERCARD.

Just register with your debit card details on HDFC bank’s website and you are ready to create your first virtual credit card. Fill in the credit card limit, the amount is automatically transferred from your debit card to virtual credit card. The virtual card generated is for one time use only and expires in 24 hours. This ensures the legit use of card. If the card is not used in this time , entire amount is transferred back (without any deduction) to your debit card with 3-4 days. This service is absolutely free. Citibank is the only other bank that has similar service in India. Update: ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra bank also provide similar services in India. I expect PSU banks in India to to take a cue from HDFC Bank on this one.

On a side note, after being diagnosed with symptoms of RSI, I was in immediate need of a particular ergonomic mouse. Not finding it anywhere in Indian market, I decided to order it from Amazon.com (Yes, Amazon delivers certain items to India). That’s when I used the HDFC Netsafe facility for first time.